The present invention relates generally to an apparatus for loading and unloading objects to and from elevated surfaces, and particularly to such devices for loading and unloading boats to or from the top of a vehicle.
It has long been a practice to carry objects on top of a vehicle rather than to transport such objects by the use of a trailer, which could entail a significantly extra expense and create traveling problems associated with the towing of a trailer. To a large extent, however, such transporting of objects on top of a vehicle have been limited to objects which were of a small enough size and weight so that they could be manually handled easily in the loading and unloading process. It would, of course, be desirable to have equipment available to aid in allowing larger objects to be loaded and unloaded from a vehicle top or even to have such apparatus available for improving the ease with which objects of any size could be loaded or unloaded from a vehicle top.
One of the objects which is most often carried on top of a vehicle is a boat. Boat loading and unloading devices has been constructed for facilitating easy loading and unloading of boats, for example, as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,696,953, 3,777,922, 3,878,954 and 3,885,689. Such devices have been developed primarily for use on campers, some of which are attached to pickup trucks and the like because such vehicles are normally much higher than the top of an automobile would be, and because the camping equipment and the boating equipment would be used on the same types of outings.
Quite often it is desired to load or unload a boat when only one person is present. This can be a difficult problem manually, especially if the boat is large or the surface to which the boat is to be loaded is high, or both, such as in the camper situation described above. It is because of these problems that boat loading and unloading devices have been devised. Some boat loading and unloading devices are terribly complicated to use and very expensive to produce. Also, many boat loading devices do not provide for easy unloading without substantial manual assistance.
It is therefore a definite need for a simple and economical loading and unloading device which can be operated by a single individual.